Mouth shapes and ASL/BSL

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NancyM

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When signing, I notice that many deaf/Deaf/HOH people use their mouths, tongues and lips very expressively, as though they are making the shapes of words? this seems to be true of people who rarely vocalise or speak... why's this???
 
I know the difference between BSL and ASL languages because I raised in England and have America friends. We have Deaf American here in Germany for few years before went back to Florida at 3 years ago. He is a priest for Deaf - baptist... live in Florida. He preached deafies only. He married to a hearing lady and produced 2 children. I'm sure you know him, Nancy since you live in Florida?


I noticed that the British people use BSL with mouth movement except ASL. Few Americans I know, use ASL with no mouth movement or face movement. :dunno:
 
Liebling:-))) said:
I know the difference between BSL and ASL languages because I raised in England and have America friends. We have Deaf American here in Germany for few years before went back to Florida at 3 years ago. He is a priest for Deaf - baptist... live in Florida. He preached deafies only. He married to a hearing lady and produced 2 children. I'm sure you know him, Nancy since you live in Florida?


I noticed that the British people use BSL with mouth movement except ASL. Few Americans I know, use ASL with no mouth movement or face movement. :dunno:
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Erm, I believe it is not Nancy the boston terrier owner who lives in Florida, as it is different Nancy with M - she is brand new member in AD!

Sorry for the confusing NancyM!!
 
NancyM said:
When signing, I notice that many deaf/Deaf/HOH people use their mouths, tongues and lips very expressively, as though they are making the shapes of words? this seems to be true of people who rarely vocalise or speak... why's this???
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As if they are mouthing words that they use to sign?

It is because many of us (Deaf) grow up in a "hearing world" and become accustomed to mouth English words for the other party to understand what we want to say in English. Because you can become too confused if you don't know which sign I want to use... You can misunderstood my sign to be "kiss" but really I mean "more" if I sign sloppily. so if i sign "more" and mouth to you: "MoooRE" then you will KNOW which word I mean.

My habit of mouthing-out words started because of interpreters. The constant usage of interpreters has inflicted me to mouth out English words so they can use that word I mouth-out to avoid confusion if I didn't mouth any English words. I don't like it when they use different words that I personally would never use so I try to dicate them by mouthing the exact words I want to say. They are not translators-- they are interpreters so they use their OWN words, not the deaf client's words.
But when it comes to Deaf people, I try to reduce that habit drastically because if not, they will assume I am a hearie that signs REALLY well. ARGH!

For example: It is ok to mouth "PAH!" when you sign: "success!" because that's not English-- but to mouth out "I_WANT_GO_STORE" is moot when you can simply sign that sentence to a Deaf person without using your lips because they understand those signs. Deaf people don't lipread Deaf people! ;)

On a separate note, many of you know I had my wisdom teeth pulled out recently. In the result, I haven't been able to mouth any English words (swollen, stiff cheeks, too painful to move my jaws) so I sign in ASL with all different facial expressions with my eyebrows but no lip movements to indicate which English word I refer to-- and my husband prefers it! He said he likes it better when I am not mouthing English words. So it's interesting how big a difference it makes whether a Deaf choose to mouth English words or not.
 
In BSL, I've read that you actually are SUPPOSED to mouth the words. I found this on an offical website
In ASL, really, from everything I've been taught, you aren't supposed to mouth English words. As Endymion said, there are specific mouth movements you are used to indicate certain things, but they are not English.
Many deaf people, even those who don't voice, mouth because they are used to it and have grown up dealing with hearing people learning sign or knowing little to no sign... I notice that many deaf people mouth with hearing people who know no sign language to show what they want (i.e. at a restaurant), as many hearing people can lipread some.
 
Liebling:-))) said:
I know the difference between BSL and ASL languages because I raised in England and have America friends. We have Deaf American here in Germany for few years before went back to Florida at 3 years ago. He is a priest for Deaf - baptist... live in Florida. He preached deafies only. He married to a hearing lady and produced 2 children. I'm sure you know him, Nancy since you live in Florida?

I noticed that the British people use BSL with mouth movement except ASL. Few Americans I know, use ASL with no mouth movement or face movement. :dunno:
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Pssstt Liebling, the author of this thread is not Nancy who lives in Florida ;)

It is obviously that you haven't met a lot of deaf Americans. There are a lot of deaf Americans who use mouth and face movements ;)
 
thanks

thanks everyone! I'm not in Florida.. I'm currently in Paris, France....
 
I was wondering about this too, but I hope this question won't make me seem like an idiot...

For those of you who don't usually vocalize, would you say it's difficult to learn the mouth shapes for words, or that it requires a lot of conscious effort to include while signing? Or does that become automatic over time like any sign or facial expression you use to get a point across?
 
Rose Immortal said:
I was wondering about this too, but I hope this question won't make me seem like an idiot...

For those of you who don't usually vocalize, would you say it's difficult to learn the mouth shapes for words, or that it requires a lot of conscious effort to include while signing? Or does that become automatic over time like any sign or facial expression you use to get a point across?
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No deaf people answered, but I can give you the experience I have had from my deaf friends. I have a few deaf friends who almost NEVER speak. They all can mouth decently well. Almost all deaf people go to speech/lipreading "therapy" when they are growing up, where they learn a lot of that.
I have one specific friend who grew up at a school for the deaf, and, not surprisingly, has been heavily involved with the deaf community her entire life. She has amazing ASL and English skills.
When she signs using ASL she mouths some of the words, but tends to just use the appropriate ASL mouth movements. When she signs English however, she mouths every single word and looks like exactly like a hearing person not using her voice. She is amazingly easy to lipread, and it comes very naturally to her.
 
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